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The Democratic Alliance (DA) has requested the Municipal Managers of Gamagara, Gasegonyana, Joe Morolong and Kgatelopele municipalities to urgently apply to Eskom for a temporary loadshedding exemption for at least a week, to enable water supply to be restored and water reserves to be replenished.

This comes after yet another fire caused massive destruction in the greater Kuruman and Kathu area. Powerlines and poles were destroyed, causing a total blackout since Saturday. The lack of power means water also cannot be pumped, causing reservoirs to run empty. This presents a double crisis for farmers fighting fires, who are also struggling to provide water to their livestock.

It is alleged that the fire started at the Lohatla training base during a military exercise on the weekend. Instead of immediately allowing farmers onto the base with their own personal fire-fighting equipment, the South African Defence Force (SANDF) apparently continued with the exercise and only later granted access to farmers. By that time the fire was out of control. This comes weeks after six SANDF members died at the base in another fire.

This and other fires destroyed vast tracts of land. One fire came within 500 meters of the buffer between Hotazel and the Thompson View housing estate. Despite this being in their jurisdiction, Gasegonyana’s fire brigade abandoned its responsibility to respond because they claimed to have used up their allocated kilometers for the week. Farmers came to the rescue, abandoning fire-fighting efforts on their own land to stop the fire from spreading onto the housing estate.

The latest fire exposes many government shortcomings.

I recently tabled a motion in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for the Premier to declare a disaster area in response to previous fires, to enable funds to be freed up to provide better support to farmers. The motion was unanimously accepted, but there has been no movement on the disaster declaration.

On the weekend, I again raised the DA’s concerns regarding possible arson, fire-fighting coordination, disaster mitigation plans and support to farmers with COGHSTA MEC, Bentley Vass. He agreed to schedule a meeting between him and myself as well as COGHSTA, the Provincial Disaster Management Center, farmers, the South African Police Service (SAPS), the SANDF as well as the affected local municipalities.

The DA has also referred our concerns regarding the SANDF’s failure to take responsibility for fires originating on its land, to create fire breaks and invest in fire-fighting equipment, to our national counterpart to take up with the Minister of Defence.

The DA thanks all who have risked their lives to help fight the fires, as well as the private companies that went out of their way to fill water tankers with borehole water, with the use of generators.

An effective fire-fighting response, however, is only as good as its weakest link and requires all stakeholders to be equally invested in putting out fires and mitigating the damages. It is therefore time that government comes to the party.

Issued by Willie Aucamp, MP - Constituency Head of Kalahari